APRIL,1900. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 155

River, suffered many vicissitudes. There was frost almost age difference between the wind force at the two situations is so remarkable that it may be of interest to give, without further delay, every night, and the average temperature waa only 35O, being the monthly mean values of wind velocity during 1699, at the respect- the coldest for thirty years. On the loth, the anniversary of ive stations. the blizzard of 1888, the minimum was only 2O above zero. The "head" of the Dines instrument at Hesketh Park is 36 feet A vivid picture of the ice storm that prevailed during the above the summit of the highest hill or knoll in the town, and 26 feet above the top of the roof of the Fernley structure, by which the knoll 1617th is published by Mrs. Britton, the wife of the director is capped. It is 85 feet above mean sea level. Some further idea of of the garden, in the first volume of the journal of the New its exposure and surroundings may be obtained from an inspection of York Botanical Garden. She stlys : the frontispiece to the annual report for 1897. The " head " of the Dines anemometer at Marshside is 50 feet above Notwithstanding the cold aeather of the month, there have been very level ground, and 40 feet above the roof of the brick hut. It is warm, quiet days and abundant signsof spring. The hylas were peep- 66 feet above mean sea level. In this case there is a very open expo- ing and the snow-drops were blooming in the nurseries on the loth, sure, and a large majority of winds reach the instrument without hav- and robins, meadow-larks, and song-sparrows had been singing. The ing previously encountered any seriously deflecting or obstructing sap of the sugar-maples flowing from broken twigs had made icicles object. several inches long during the night, and a few venturesome silver- Msnn mlocily of llrs wind. maples had thrust out their ale stamens. On the 15th the second ___~ snowstorm of the year arrive$, q uietly piling up eight inches of snow I I/ on the level, and changing to sleet during the night. The next morn- ing dawned clear and cold, the sky was blue and cloudless, and every common thing stood transformed to crystal, tinkling with icicles and hung in prismatic rainbows. We may look to the authorities of the New Pork garden January,...... 7.0 i4.0 August ...... 4.8 10.0 February ...... 6.5 10.6 Septembor...... ~ 8.8 18.0 for phenological records that will permit full and reliable March ...... 5.2 12.1 October ...... 4.5 11.7 Aprll ...... 8.0 14.0 November. .... 7.1 i5.6 comparison with similar data from other parts of the world, May ...... 4.4 8.9 December ...... 6.0 10.7 and with that for the early years of our own settlements. June...... 3.9 8.9 July ...... 4.0 11.8 Tear ...... 6.8 12. e Three meteorological stations have been established in the 1 garden. Station 1 is located in the herbaceous grounds. Every possible precaution ha8 been taken to insure the accurate Station 2 is on a low ridge in the center of the hemlock for- working of the two instruments. The one at Hesketh Park has been est. Station 3 is in the central portion of the elevated plain dismounted and entirely refitted, the pipes also being tested, but the of the fructicetum, which is bordered on the east by a decid- differences continue as before. uous forest, and on the south by artificial lakes and the hem- lock forests. The thermometers are contained in shelters of Although these two anemometers are not very far apart the Weather Bureau pattern. This new me- yet there is a priori no special reason for surprise at the teorological station is about 12 miles northeast by north from great difference between the two records. When the wind the regular Weather Bureau station. The record at botani- blows over an obstacle, or a series of obstacles, there is at cal garden, station 1, for April is as follows: Precipitation, once produced a systematic derangement in the otherwise 2.39 inches. Maximum temperatures, 7'i0, at 2 p. m. on the steady streams of air which are now thrown into violent con- 30th. Minimum temperatures, 21.501 at 6.30 a. m., on the tortions and the individual currents so interfere with each 10th. other as to greatly diminish the average velocity of the wind over a large region in the rear of the obstacle. An explora- STORM IN YUCATAN. tion of the surrounding region usually shows that the wind is blowing its full strength in various unexpected places, A report from Merida, Yucatan, states that "a terrific hur- between which are found minor currents due to the obstacles. ricane struck here , resulting in great loss of prop- Above and outside of these currents the wind also blows with erty.)' On that date an extensive area of low pressure had full strength. its southern extremity in the Gulf of , and severe In the present case the winds reach the Marshside anemom- local stohs may have prevailed in that region, but nothing eter with much less interruption from distant trees and sufficiently extensive to be called a hurricane seenis likely to structures, and we can but believe that the records for the have occurred. Apparently, this is another cane of the re- two stations differ from this.reason only and not because of portorial use of high-sounding words. A destructive wind errors in the apparatus. may be a norther, a tornado, a thunderstorm gust-it may even be called a wind of hurricane force-but it is not a hurricane. The latter term applies to a destructive wind circulating about a local area of low barometric pressure, THE SEASONAL RAIN IN COLORADO. and moving day after day along the surface of the earth. Later in the summer the local storms of the West Indies and In the annual summary of the Colorado section Mr. F. H. Gulf of Mexico may develop into grand hurricanes, but Brandenburg, Section Director, gives not only the annual these are not likely to occur so early as April or May. numerical tables, but a general review for the winter 1898-99, from which it appears that much more than the normal P amount of snow fell, forming vast drifts, so that on July 1, 1599, a much greater amount was stored in protected places LOCAL ANEMOMETRIC PECULIARITIES. at great altitudes than usual, giving good prospects for a In the annual report for 1899 of the Fernley Observatory, steady flow in summer. Mr. Brandenburg also contributes at Southport, England, lat. 53O 39' 24" N.; long. 2O 59' 3" W., a chapter to a discussion of long-range or seasonal forecasts. therefore, about twenty miles north of Liverpool, the meteor- He shows that, so far as concerns the temperature records at ologist, Mr. Joseph Baxendell, gives some accounts of experi- Denver, the average temperature for a season, or a longer ments with the pressure tube anemometer devised by Dines, period, has apparently no connection with the tem erature but essentially based on the principles involved in the Hag? of the coming season ; that, in general, an exceptiona f1y warm man anemometer. He says : spring or summer does not follow an abnormally cold winter. The compensations occur, not in the immediately following Although no very thorough or detailed comparison between the in- dications of the Dines pressure tube anemometers at the Hesketh Park seasons, but at uncertain intervals of time. Observatory, and the Marshside station has yet been made, the aver- With regard to precipitation at Denver, he finds that nota-

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